Supporting Future Leaders In Diabetes Research

Main Category: Diabetes
Article Date: 10 May 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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Four researchers have been awarded fellowships by Diabetes UK.

Our fellowships are given to exceptional scientists and clinicians, to develop their skills and independence as future leaders in diabetes research.

Clinical Training Fellowship

Dr Rachel Besser

Dr Rachel Besser is Diabetes UK's new Clinical Training Fellow and will be working at Exeter's Peninsula Medical School to develop and evaluate a simple urine test to determine how much insulin is produced by young people with diabetes.

This will help in diagnosing their type of diabetes and monitor changes in insulin production during the important early stages of Type 1 diabetes.

Dr Besser has a long association with Diabetes UK and has been a volunteer doctor on many of the charity's care holidays for children and Living with diabetes days.

Moffat Travelling Fellowship

Dr Emily Williams

Dr Emily Williams has been awarded Diabetes UK's Moffat Travelling Fellowship, which is funded with generous support from the Moffat Charitable Trust.

Dr Williams will be working to investigate why people from different socioeconomic backgrounds have different risks of developing Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which could ultimately help to inform interventions and policy for both conditions.

Based in Melbourne, Australia for most of the fellowship, Dr Williams will return to the UK at the end of her fellowship with the expertise she has gained from her time abroad.

RD Lawrence Fellowships

Two RD Lawrence Fellowships were also awarded to outstanding researchers, Dr Guillaume Mabilleau and Dr Maja Wållberg.

Dr Guillaume Mabilleau

Dr Mabilleau (pictured) will be working in the area of Charcot foot at the University of Oxford. Charcot foot is a neuropathic condition that can lead to deformity of the foot and ankle in some people with diabetes. Since there is currently no treatment for Charcot foot - other than immobilisation of the foot in plaster cast - Dr Mabilleau intends to study the molecular mechanisms behind this complication to help find new targets to treat it more effectively.

Dr Maja Wållberg

Meanwhile, at the University of Cambridge, Dr Wållberg will be researching a molecule of the immune system called TGF-beta, which is known to reduce the inflammation of islet cells seen in Type 1 diabetes. Dr Wållberg will be asking how TGF-beta does this and whether this mechanism can be used to protect any residual islets in people in the early stages of developing Type 1 diabetes. The research could also help find ways to protect islets used in transplantations.

Source
Diabetes UK

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